The Financial Brand

Full conference agenda and schedule of events for the?Forum 2025?is now available! Just released today!?Check out the?complete schedule?of events at?The Financial Brand Forum 2025, including dates, times and locations — who's speaking, what's happening, when and where. Take a look at the interactive, printable agenda and see everything you'll miss if you don't attend — killer keynotes,?Forum X?talks, the?Executive Leadership Series,?CMO Masterminds, the?Growth Strategies Lab, and dozens of breakout sessions. https://lnkd.in/g9RPRxXt

Your customer loyalty is not as strong as you think. "When we design marketing campaigns for clients, we need to remind them their most aggressive competitors are not the branch down the street. It's the giant credit card company cross-selling a savings account with a great rate. Or peer-to-peer providers trying to keep low-cost deposits while selling a credit card," says Marquis' Sue Schabert. While community banks and credit unions worry about overwhelming customers, larger institutions are embedding themselves into your customers' daily financial habits. Once that momentum shifts away from your institution, it's nearly impossible to regain. That's why engagement isn't just a marketing tactic — it's a survival strategy.

“What we're witnessing with BNPL isn't just adoption – it's a shift in how people approach payments altogether,” says Sunil Rajasekar, CEO of Billtrust. In just two years, Gen Z’s BNPL usage jumped from 26% to 46%, using it for everyday purchases. With fintechs like Affirm and Klarna embedding installment options at checkout, banks face growing competition for transactions. To stay competitive, banks need to rethink their pay-over-time strategies, embedding installment plans earlier in the buying journey and leveraging customer trust. Where does the market go from here? Read our breakdown.

Struggling to Become Truly Data-Driven? David Evans, Chief Content Officer at The Financial Brand, has some great insights on our complimentary Level Up Your Data e-book. I think he captured the essence we were aiming for, you can make meaningful strides in improving data literacy across your FI without chasing moonshots. Small, powerful shifts in culture and access, are important first steps. These thoughts stuck out to me: 1?? Barriers to being a data-driven organization are not technology. It’s access and culture. Technology might be in place, but people aren't empowered, included, or trained. 2?? Leaders need to model the behavior they want to see and reward those who do the same. Leadership and change management 101. 3?? Cross-functional collaboration and teamwork are essential to winning.?Context and collaboration make data actionable. Read through his editorial: https://lnkd.in/gNSSbUS5 Take a deeper dive into these concepts with our complimentary e-book written by myself and Gina Vlosky (who did the killer design work and a ton of writing). The link also gives you access to the free webinar. https://lnkd.in/gzXJs7Bs I’ll be at the Michigan Credit Union League & Affiliates YOU Conference for Marketing, Compliance and Lending Thursday to talk about these topics and weave in everyday AI solutions (plus upcoming conferences). Stop at Marquis’ booth to learn more and visit with myself and Sean Cunningham. ? Satin Mirchandani CUSG

The gap between a great offer and real market impact comes down to one thing: execution speed. The financial landscape is rapidly evolving — with a recent CFPB lawsuit questioning banks' obligations around savings rates and brands like Starbucks becoming your real competition. How can traditional financial institutions respond? This portal explores how in-branch experiences can thrive in the digital age and why authentic engagement is replacing old-school loyalty programs. Learn how financial marketers are compressing timelines and launching targeted offers with confidence in a world where both speed and compliance matter. Check out the latest content hub from Naehas: https://lnkd.in/ezgQ8HiY

Today's parents aren't waiting until their children are teenagers to open their first accounts. Millennials and Gen Z parents are starting early: - 35% open accounts before their child's 6th birthday - 46% open accounts when their child is between 6-12 years old The most compelling finding? Youth accounts create remarkable loyalty: - 45% of youth account holders stay with their institution for at least 5 years - 24% never leave Financial education combined with a deposit account experience at an early age can shape a young person's financial identity, attitudes and habits in a way that can last a lifetime, according to the FDIC.

Happening today at 2pm EST: Mastering Omnichannel Marketing with HomeStreet Bank Digital marketing plays a critical role in this approach, and with a Digital Experience Platform (DXP) like Sitefinity, marketers can centralize content, analyze customer behavior, and optimize campaigns for maximum impact. In this webinar, we’ll explore how leveraging your DXP for marketing, behavioral data, and personalization can enhance engagement across all channels. Plus, hear from HomeStreet Bank on how they use insights and data from digital marketing campaigns to create targeted, high-impact campaigns.

Looking forward to Vegas next month and The Financial Brand Forum! Please connect with me through LinkedIn for a quick chat. I'd love to hear how you're impacting your FI and client experience. We've got some great ideas for the future! #branchtransformation #conference #vegas #retailbanking

Excited to announce the launch of our new content portal with Jack Henry! In a financial landscape where only 10% of banks may survive AI disruption, how do you position your institution on the right side of the divide? From avoiding common AI implementation pitfalls to understanding the regulatory vacuum created by GenAI, there are curated insights from industry experts including Microsoft's Daragh Morrissey on harnessing generative AI's transformative potential. Whether you're starting your AI journey or looking to accelerate existing initiatives, this new content hub provides the strategic roadmap you need. Check it out in the link below in the comments:

If you have read any of my posts in the last few years, three things might stand out to you: 1. I am a loyal brand ambassador for my organization 2. I really like eggs ?? 3. People are the most important thing to me in the workplace I have been blessed to work in an industry that I still find exciting, decades later. More importantly, I have met countless, awesome humans during that time, which is probably the reason why I continue to find this industry to be amazing. Recently, one of my teammates experienced a pretty significant trial. The kind that you don't simply recover from after a few days. The kind that are life changing and life altering. And yet in the middle of a very busy season in the life of our organization, our leadership showed true support, care, and concern for this person, and told us we would do all that we could to not only rally around this person, but also chip in anywhere and everywhere so that they could take the time they needed. And that if some things fell through the cracks, so be it. You know, I have seen a lot of people and organizations on LinkedIn publicly espouse how caring their culture is, but I am proud and blessed to find that Tyfone, Inc. demonstrates it. If you're reading this, I hope that your company is just as caring. I'm attaching a couple of photos that illustrate why I'm still having fun with this career: 1) members of our Tyfone team at Fintech Meetup a couple weeks ago, and 2) maintaining friendships with folks like Jay Hunter Vandegriff, who I worked with in the past. We both left and work at competing organizations now, but when you get connected to good people, you try to maintain those connections as much as possible. At least I do. Speaking of connections, if you are heading to The Financial Brand Forum in April, let's connect!